Thursday, November 7, 2013

The Who (ii)

One great thing about having cable back then was being able to watch movies all the way through with no commercial interruptions. I didn't read TV Guide or anything like that, so I never really knew what was going to be on, and it was always kind of a surprise as to what was going to be watched at any given evening. It could be a comedy-drama like Foul Play, or something scary, like The Amityville Horror, something funny, like High Anxiety, or even a kids' movie, like Dot And The Kangaroo.
Something that turned up was the 1975 film of The Who's Tommy, which I got to see a number of times. The original album was not in the house, although I was familiar with "Pinball Wizard", and I was delighted to see Elton John in his outlandish boots, singing the song while on the pinball machine with the wee keyboard mounted on the front. For some reason, he reminded me of Paul Williams in his cameo appearance in The Muppet Movie...

The rest of the movie was quite an adventure. I didn't know who Tina Turner was just then, but her role as The Acid Queen was pretty frightening. I had seen The Wizard Of Oz sometime that past Halloween, but the Wicked Witch had nothing on her...all I knew was that I did not want to be in that room with her!

I remember after the movie was over, and with a little time to fill before the next one, HBO would show the promotional film for the Who song "Who Are You" from The Kids Are Alright, which was not only a great song, but also a lot of fun to watch...the sight of Keith Moon cracking up the other guys while doing overdubs was a joy, and they looked like they were having a good time recording. But it was also a bit sad, because I knew that Keith was gone, and there was no-one else like him.